People Watching: Voyeuristic and Evil Research

By nature, I can be a very judgmental person.  Although my empathy far exceeds my willingness to judge, and those closest to me know me as being empathetic to an almost faulty degree, the finger-pointing judge still peeks his head out from time to time just long enough to make a ruckus with the gavel.  The only thing I try not to avoid judging anymore is a literal book by its cover.  You think I’m kidding?  Have you been to Amazon lately?  Have you hung out in any of these writer’s groups on Facebook?  The ones where authors are trying to sell their self-photoshopped books to other authors.  See, I can feel judgment creeping in and I’m only one paragraph in. 

With writing, I want to try and redeem some of those hard stares I’ve given to people in the past; while I eyed you walking through the mall and made a mental note of your stonewashed jeans and mullet, or while in conversation with you it looked like I was paying attention, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the way you said that one word or how every other sentence you’d close your eyes through the whole thing like you were practicing some kind of meditative chatting.  I’d like to redeem it all by immortalizing it in my work through character development. 

During NaNoWriMo, I started a novel.  I had a character in there that my main character happened upon in a diner.  The exchange between the two was rather surreal and reminded me of something out of a David Lynch film.  The scene was short, spontaneous, and out of context.  It was the most fun I had the entire time I wrote the first twelve thousand words.  I may never finish the book, but for me that experience of giving birth to—and developing—a character was a good lesson.  The diner character wasn’t based on anyone in particular, but I suppose for me it was a small character study on lonely individuals.  The type of person that most look at as nothing more than a street post or a bush in front of a church; like soulless city decor.

I write short stories, so there’s only so much character development that can go on; however, this year will see me writing more and I plan on branching out into a series of short books (more details another time).  During these writings sessions, I plan on using my judgmental eyes to develop characters based on all the people watching and observing I’ve done over the years.  Perhaps I’ll make a hero out of that guy and his mullet.

GINORMOUS NEWS UPDATE:  Horror author, and son of the late, great Ronnie James Dio, Dan Padavona will be writing the foreword to my anthology.  Dan released his debut novel, Storberry, last year along with a two-story collection simply titled, The Island.  This year will see the release of his collaborate effort with author J. Thorn and their book Shadow Witch.  Dan is also finishing up the first few books in a post-apocalyptic series that will be released simultaneously in the next month or two.  Dan is very passionate about the craft, and I am honored that he would bless me with authoring the foreword to my book.  The book has a tentative release date set for March 2015.  It will be titled “Night as a Catalyst” and will have approximately fourteen stories in it.  The cover will be created by Ms. Abigail Larson.  Abigail’s work has been featured in galleries throughout the US and Europe including London, Paris, and Madrid.  She has an illustrative gothic style all her own that I feel will present some outstanding eye candy blanketing the pages of my work.  Please stop by and pay a visit to Dan and Abigail; sign up to their newsletters, Twitter, like them on FB…the works.